Grace Randolph’s Supurbia is a tough comic to pigeon-hole. It both looks and feels like a superhero comic but plays out more like an episode of ‘The real housewives of..’. Suburbia makes what is usually the supporting cast of superhero comics, the caped crusader’s family and partner, the main event, putting an emphasis on emotion over action. This is a book that dares to explore what happens when the capes come off and it does it well.It should be noted that Supurbia #1 is not a number one issue as much as a continuation of the miniseries of the same name that wrapped up earlier in the year. Although having read the miniseries is not essential to understanding what’s going down in Supurbia #1, it certainly helps.
The issue opens with the superhero ‘Sovereign’ being confronted by his ex-girlfriend and journalist, Hayley Harper. What is presented initially like a classic meeting between Lois Lane and Superman soon takes a dark turn and it becomes clear that Sovereign is no moral paragon. Indeed all the heroes of Randolph’s ‘Meta Legion’ are delightfully all too human. The real strength of this book is the way it takes the traditional superhero archetypes and fills them out to become whole but flawed people. The flaws become even more evident in this fifth instalment as each Meta legion member and their family attempts to deal with the aftermath of the four issue miniseries. For the female warrior Batu, this issue is all about coming to terms with the fact that her son inherited her super-human combat prowess instead of the intended recipient, her daughter. Meanwhile Eve, wife of the new Marine Omega, attempts to rally the other Meta Legionaries’ partners into something that resembles a superhero support team. Also there’s a dragon.
Supurbia is bold in scope as it attempts to document the lives of four superheroes of the Meta Legion and their families, so understandably the comic jumps around a lot. Issue #1 mainly keeps the focus on Batu and Sovereign while going quite light on a lot of the other characters. For example we don’t even get to see Cosmic Champion this issue. This is not a bad thing in itself; I just hope Randolph hasn’t bitten off more than she can chew character wise. The other issue that really struck out at me in this issue was a lack of economy of words. Randolph is by no means as bad as Kevin Smith on this front, but a significant portion of the dialogue uses a lot or words to say very little. It felt like Randolph was trying to say and spell everything out with dialogue rather than utilise any visual storytelling techniques.
Russel Dauterman’s art, although still hit and miss at times, is looking a lot sharper. All the faces and facial expressions really helped to sell the drama and emotion of Randolph’s dialogue, while his overall style provides a playfulness iconic of the Superhero genre.
I decided to give Supurbia a chance, because I strongly believe in supporting independent "anything."
And I will review this comic by it's art, story, and content.
The plus side, I gave Supurbia a 3 out of 5 for the art work, as I found the art work to be a little comical and cartoonish; not exactly my taste, but just my opinion.
The story was a 1 out of 5 as I found it to be sexually immoral with homosexuality, promiscuity, and adultery. As I reached mid-way through the comic, I was observing an adulterous relationship as a married man was having a gay relationship with another man.
The content I gave a 3 out of 5. It was decent which was better that other major comics like Marvel and DC, which could total the entire content of one of their comics in 2 or 3 paragraphs.
The BAD: Though I try to be a big supporter of Independent creators, I still do not support any form or fashion of any kind of gay relationships. Gay relationships regardless of them being male or female have always been NASTY, are still NASTY, and will always be NASTY. I understand mainstream media is pushing hard for gay exposure for financial purposes that gays cannot see, but they are extremely ignorant of the spiritual consequences of their actions. Although the spiritual consequences are not apparent right away, they include a reprobate mind and are punishable by God by allowing the person to remain stuck with that sexually perverse, deceptive, darkened mindset which keeps that person in that state of mind continuously, causing them to be spiritually, and intellectually blind to their actions and choices. It is literally a state of thinking that only contributes to the digression and deterioration of the individual over time.
Overall: Supurbia gets a rating of 2 out of 5 by me. And again, it is just my opinion.
Thanks for reading,
Edwin!